Will be loaded with Rockies.  I realized last night that Clint Hurdle will be manager for the NL next year, and we all know that the all star managers always stock the teams with their own guys.  So let's see...Helton, Tulo, Holliday, Corpas, Hawpe, Francis (the whole team maybe?), Seth Smith.  Maybe the National League will actually win with a team stocked with Rox and we'll have home field advantage for next years World Series too.  But, that's next year.  We still have one more series to contend with that if just a wee bit HUGE!  Thought I would bring it up though.  Go ROCKIES!!!!

I had the distinct pleasure of watching the draft this year from Treasure Island, Las Vegas.  Like many of us, I was more than a little disappointed with Casey Weathers being the first round selection.  Not having an internet connection, I was in great need for information beyond the first round.  Luckily, I found an Apple store right next to our hotel and quickly logged on.  All the college senior picks added fuel to the fire of my misery.

Later, having lost my blackjack budget, I had ample time to think about all this.  Sitting at a restaurant looking over The Strip, it dawned on me that these perceived low ceiling picks might just be part of a bigger plan.  We have to figure that Weathers will sign for around 2 million, and everyone else who will be signed, will do so for around 1.5-2M more.  Probably less, but we'll see.  I am not counting Kentrail Davis in this either.  

Thinking outside the box, this is a fairly inexpensive draft compared to recent years.  I'm thinking it was done this way on purpose for one of two reasons.  The first is if, at the trade deadline,  the Rockies have made up some ground in the division and the brothers monfort decide to open up the purse strings and BRING IN somebody in trade, and decide to keep Fuentes.  This would not be possible if they had picked the high risk/high reward/only gonna sign if I get paid type of player.  

The second is if they are not in it at the end of July, perhaps the low budget draft could help them to bring in an impact free agent.   Maybe, just maybe (and a few dozen hopefully's too), ownership has realized they need to pony up and having a tight budget on the amateur draft is a way of measuring if that will be possible.

And before all the "Monfort's are too cheap to do that type of thing" posts come out, know that we have already discussed that at length.  Please don't make me read it again.  I am just throwing it out there as an alternative train of thought.  

Over the past few weeks, I have seen, and read about, much discussion as to the merits of our lovely manager.  Why did he make that move?, is he even watching the game?, why doesn't O'Dowd fire him already?.  These are the comments I have seen most often.  While I am not going to defend some of his decisions (Barmes loyalty for one), I do think it is fair to say that Clint is a man capable of managing quite successfully if given the necessary ingredients.

So where does that leave us?  We have seen four managers try to win here in Colorado.  The only one that has tasted success was Don Baylor.  Up until this season, the other three have failed miserably.  Baylor spent the first couple of seasons learning how to manage a baseball team at altitude.  He proved quite successfully in the third season that making the post season in Denver could be done.  He successfully was able to convince his players to use Coors Field to their advantage, and let it intimidate the opposition.  After the post season in 1995, I recall many Atlanta Braves players and coaches saying publicly they were extremely lucky to have survived the first round playoff battle with the Rockies.  That is the year, of course, that Atlanta won their only World Series of their incredible playoff run.  After 1995, Baylor had two years where the team played over .500 baseball.  In 1998, the year he was fired, the team finished 4th at 77-85.  

So, why was Don Baylor fired?  The reason was simply that our idiotic General Manager Bob Gebhardt convinced our equally idiotic owner Jerry McMorris that the only way the Rockies were ever going to win the World Series was to fire their quite capable manager Baylor and hire the one year removed from the Series win Jim Leyland.  Leyland came in with all of his fancy theories and cigarettes, and we all fell into the trap of expecting a Series title of our own.  Well, when the theories didn't pan out in Coors, Leyland wimped out on his signed contract and took his smokes home to sit on his butt until Detroit came calling.  Our next manager of course, was the hapless Buddy Bell, progressing on to the hitting coach that had been through it all Clint Hurdle.  Of course, during all this, Gebhardt was let go, and McMorris hired Trader Dan, but that is another subject.  It is my argument that the firing of Don Baylor set the Colorado Rockies on a multiyear path of changed plans, bad trades, and general ineptitude.  

Fast forward a couple of years.  Clint and Dan have spent a heck of a long time figuring out how to win here.  The team has shown flashes of being outstanding, the pitching has never been better, and I feel we are one or two seasons away from making a real run.  This of course assumes that the front office makes some astute player personnel decisions as well.  As far as the manager goes, I think we are essentially in the same situation we were in with Baylor.  I feel that if the media and the fans keep pressuring the Rockies to fire Clint, then that will put us right back where we were with Leyland.  That is to say the new guy will have to spend at least two seasons learning how to deal with pitching here, how to manage the bench here, etc.  What if he fails at this?  The team loses, the kids we are all so excited about don't build confidence, the team loses some more.  We would be set on another five year rebuilding plan, which means we would essentially be the Pirates and the Royals.

Hurdle has figured out what it takes to win in Denver.  He knows how to massage the pitchers, get the bench playing time, get them to win on the road, etc.  Even though the team is under .500, he has managed the team to win some great ball games this season.   I also feel he has proven this year that he is capable of adapting his managing style as the kids grow while searching for the piece that is going to stick.  I say we give him one more season to prove he can do it.  If in September, 2007 we are still stuck in last place, then yes, bring in a new skipper.  But for right now, let's respect him and support him and see if he can't get us to 0.500 ball and into third place before the season ends.  I think he deserves at least that.

How in the world does a team in the thick of a pennant race allow itself to get swept in a five game series to their sworn enemy AT HOME?!?!?!!!  Is there any word on how many fans jumped from the upper levels at Fenway?  The Red Sox might as well not even play the rest of their games.  Their season is done, kaput, finito.  It only took until the end of August for some of these pennant races to sort themselves out.  So, with little else to talk about on the Rockies off day, let's see some predictions for the division winners and wild card.  Here are mine:

AL East:  The stoopid Yankees.
AL Central:  Too easy-Detroit
AL West:  The Angels
AL Wildcard:  Minnesota (seven games left against the Royals seals the deal)

NL East:  The stoopid Mets
NL Central:  The Cardinals (just by a hair though, Cincinatti's remaining schedule is against the NL West, and we know how weak that division is...)    
NL West:  The Diamondbacks.
NL Wildcard:  Cincinatti by that same hair.